Current shock absorption technologies include fluid dampers that vary the amount of damping force provided to a sprung mass of a system by channeling fluid through various passageways and valves to constrict fluid flow, increase pressures, and bypass damping fluid chambers. Various damping characteristic curves may result from tuning the sizes and locations of orifices and the stiffness of valve shims.
Current fluid dampers are constructed of uniform damper tubes, damper pistons, piston shafts, seals, wear bands, and bearings that engage one another frictionally. The surface treatment is uniform along the length of the inner surface of the damper tube and the outer surface of the piston shaft. The damper pistons, seals, wear bands, and bearings engage the damper tube and piston shaft and include both a static friction and a kinetic friction. Both frictions depend upon the surface to surface interaction between the piston (or piston wear band) and the damper tube or between the shaft and a seal and/or bearing surface.